The first part of the puzzle seems fairly straightforward. It's the second part that I'm having gripes with.

If you solved the first part correctly, the answer is staring you right in the face. Avé!

Easy for you to say lol.

I would be curious to see what Aura found afterwards :D

What i found was garbaly gook, but the puzzle hints that is what you should expect to happen.

You see garbaly gook, the answer is right in your face. Read.

Thanks for the hint.

Probably same as Aura:
I think I know what to do and how to do it (first 6 lines).
But so far, the first two paragraphs of the poem do not give me anything useful and there are at least 2 different ways to read it (red or blue). I don't have the time to write all the options out.

Not sure if we should do something with the number of letters skipped at the beginning or end of each line before/after the colouring.

So I think I'll just wait for someone else to give the answer. :-)


EDIT: what I have for the first 2 alinea's:

GB AHFR GO   THIERLOG  RR GIT ER I

Edited 7/8/2020 13:50:22

If all seems nonsensical
Then on you'll have to wade
And never become skeptical
As did the Light Brigade

Math wolf,

Listen to Farah.

-Aura

Edited 7/8/2020 19:23:28

I don't have the time to write all the options out.

As the first cipher is sometimes a bit ambiguous (considering I and J as the same letter, or U and V, but not always, etc.), you can mail me the ciphertext after you find it. If I see you broke the first cipher, I will send you the correct plaintext to continue.

Edited 7/9/2020 11:53:34

I only see a poem with some random letters in blue and red.

Someone should travel to the Netherlands and give Farah a wedgie. He is used to it.

Rude!

Do the colors replace A and B?

I guess you need to increase the prize money to solve the riddle ;)

Maybe this one was a bit too tough. Aura Guardian solved the first step, Math Wolf was well on his way.

The solution is as follows:

The poem is written by Tennyson. He talked to Mr. Bacon it would seem. This hints to a Bacon cipher. In a Bacon cipher, we construct the alphabet using A's and B's, or sometimes 1's and 0's.

The poem has strings of 5 characters written in a red and blue color. They replace those A's and B's. Decoding the Bacon Cipher with RED = A and BLUE = B, it gives us the following text:

DGUZPSFRKTNUNIJLOXMTWNNXXNWEQUVXULUSDBKXBWEAPJQRHZYHPUVCECJCNBYHGIHIUFJBUVYNCWMOVMNCNONCIHUHXFUMNFSWITHCAESAR

Note the text "WITHCAESAR" at the end of this string. Since only the last bit makes sense, on we had to wade. And never become sceptical, as did the Light Brigade.

The Caesar Cipher is the rotation of letters. Every letter in the ciphertext gets shifted by the value n of the rotation, denoted by ROT(n). This means there are 25 options after that.

Decoding our ciphertext with ROT(6) and leaving out the 'WITHCAESAR' part, we obtain:

JMAFVYLXQZTATOPRUDSZCTTDDTCKWABDARAYJHQDHCKGVPWXNFENVABIKIPITHENMONOALPHABETICSUBSTITUTIONANDLASTLY

In which the last part reads 'THEN WITH MONOALPHABETICAL SUBSTITUTION AND LASTLY'

So we have to use monoalphabetical substitution. Usually, these substitutions are done with a keyword to construct a new alphabet. Using the key 'THELIGHTBRIGADE' we obtain the following substitution-alphabet:

ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ
THELIGBRADCFJKMNOPQSUVWXYZ

Decoding our previously obtained ciphertext with this substitutio-alphabet, while leaving out 'THENWITHMONOALPHABETICALSUBSTITUTIONANDLASTLY' gets us

MOILVYDXSZAIAQRHUJTZKAAJJAKNWIGJIHIYMBSJBKNFVRWXPLCPVIGENERE

And note the last bit says 'VIGENERE'.

Decoding our message according to the Vigenere Cipher with key 'THELIGHTBRIGADE' gives us

THEANSWERISCANNONFIRETHISSENTENCEWASFIRSTENCRYPTEDWI

So, by putting it all together, the plaintext reads:

The answer is cannonfire. This sentence was first encrypted wi Vigenere, then with monoalphabetical substitution and lastly with Caesar.

And that solves the riddle.

Edited 7/12/2020 15:12:49

no idea

how long anyways

usally 123356664445